I got the original Wii by accident because I walked into a Gamestop one day for something else and they happened to have them in stock. Didn't even buy a game for it since I had no clue what was available.

sysbcl wrote:

I have a long and distinguished history of picking up at least one crap game for most launches...

I don't, which is why I'm not biting until there's something I seriously want.

So for those of you buying the Wii U, what games are you getting right away?

I reserved Rayman Legends (playing through Origins right now on the 360) and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (for multiplayer with friends - probably going to need at least one Pro Controller to go with it, though) alongside my system. Reserved them all at a Gamestop whose manager is a long-time friend of mine, so hopefully I'm not going home empty-handed on launch day.

So for those of you buying the Wii U, what games are you getting right away?

I have a long and distinguished history of picking up at least one crap game for most launches...

If I get the $350.00 package, I'll just try and stick it out with Nintendoland. Otherwise I'm totally picking up New Super Mario U.

Oh, and try and top this for crap launch game purchases: I chose, after 30 minutes of deliberation, to walk out of the game store with a copy of China Warrior when my parents bought me a TurboGrafx way back when.

Looks like I may have been wrong about Motion+ being mandatory. The wording doesn't necessarily rule out requiring a Wiimote with Motion+ attached as opposed to integrated, but right now I'm very glad I couched my statement as "to the best of my knowledge" instead of "You dumbass, of course Motion+ is required!"

Looks like I may have been wrong about Motion+ being mandatory. The wording doesn't necessarily rule out requiring a Wiimote with Motion+ attached as opposed to integrated, but right now I'm very glad I couched my statement as "to the best of my knowledge" instead of "You dumbass, of course Motion+ is required!"

Page 3 mentions that it will in fact be required for some NintendoLand minigames, from a second Nintendo rep.

Thanks for the link... good interview and nice site to read through. Sounds like I'll need to get a MotionPlus controller, since my original Wii doesn't have it.

Tank Tank Tank look kind of fun (for short amount of time) but the graphic is at PS1 level.

Anyways, according to Beyond 3D the new rumor said it is based on the Radeon E6760, an embedded part that is based on the 6570/6670. Slow part but at least it is DX11 capable.

Slow by our high-end PC standards, but not by console ones then (assuming it's true... first speculation of this was back in July).... but yeah, Tank Tank Tank may not stay on my pre-order list, unless there are good previews for it. I like destructible environments, though, which it touts.

EDIT: I see there are firmer rumors now... 480sp, 1gb 128-bit gddr3 or 5 (3 likely since there is edram for high-bandwidth needs), looks pretty good for a console GPU. Supposedly it will have some further refinements as well. I'm not *thrilled* at the news, but it's better than what I thought it could turn out to be. Add in extra clockspeed and it may be pretty strong. NeoGAF thread is speculating more than 4x the speed of the Xbox 360 GPU if it gained anything much from optimizations. Definitely respectable.

I missed pre-orders but will try and buy one on launch day. So far I'm more excited for the tv aspect of the device then I I'm for the games. If I get wii at launch I will get call of duty for it. I loved the others for the Wii. I was a mouse and key board gamer back in the day and the Wii motion is better then a controller in my opinion. So I hope more shooter come out for the Wii u I didn't enjoy trying to play them on the 360.

Anyone know how to tell which games on the WiiU are playable purely on the gamepad ? Apparently this feature isn't guaranteed across all the games.

I like the idea of shifting the game play to the gamepad whenever the TV is in use. Also I like how the console level wiiU pushes games to the gamepad, in essence its a portable system thats tethered to your house, but has high quality graphics. This portable console angle isn't really stressed in the marketing, I believe it could become one of its primary uses.

Anyone know how this will do as a media box regarding formats and will I be able to stream HBO GO from it?

I want a box that does the following:

1. FLAC music playing across my network2. will play HD files (mkv)

If history is a guide (WRT console media capabilities) these formats won't likely be supported, but media servers with transcoding capabilities are pretty standard.

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3. Stream Netflix4. Stream HBO GO5. Stream Amazon

I'd hazard a guess: Yes, maybe and yes. Netflix and Amazon seem to realize that it's important to have a method for people to reach the content they provide on whatever device the consumers have. Netflix is pretty much ubiquitous on CE devices and Amazon is getting there. HBO GO is a different story. It perplexes me why they don't release an app for the PS3.

Some things I found interesting are, they decided to start with a combined CPU & GPU to get those performance and power improvements. They also had to basically come up with new wireless algorithms to transmit latency free video to the Game Pad.

Eh. This is not 2006. Even if Nintendo created the greatest console with the greatest launch games they would not be able to match the forever sold out Wii pace of 2006-2007. Seems like a pretty smart generational release. Like a lot of people, I don't have the disposable income to spend $400+ on a console system that I will play for a few hours a week. A higher amount of memory or better online or whatever other improvement people think they should make would not change my decision to buy it and would lower their margin. When the first sales figures start coming out, everyone will clamor about the train wreck and blame it on the WiiU not having X. Then all the rumors about WiiUs being buried in the desert will start. But people that really can't afford it, got "burned" by the Wii or really aren't interested will feel much better about not buying it because it "sucks".

Lets be realistic..... probably 1/4 of the people that buy the Wii U are doing it ONLY for Nintendo licensed games. If Zelda and Mario games didn't exist, I wouldn't have owned a Wii either. The one benefit of the Wii U, is that it's backwards compatible with games and peripherals, and I can transfer my classic games that I downloaded from the Nintendo store.

Seriously though, if it weren't for Zelda games, I wouldn't have bought a Nintendo console past the N64.

Eh. This is not 2006. Even if Nintendo created the greatest console with the greatest launch games they would not be able to match the forever sold out Wii pace of 2006-2007. Seems like a pretty smart generational release. Like a lot of people, I don't have the disposable income to spend $400+ on a console system that I will play for a few hours a week. A higher amount of memory or better online or whatever other improvement people think they should make would not change my decision to buy it and would lower their margin.

Cool post, bro. I agree: It is clearly no longer the year 2006. And because of that, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect Nintendo to deliver an amazing online experience.

Steam, XBL, and PSN are mainstream and embraced by casual gamers. We're not asking Nintendo to cater to some niche group of people.

kinneywhat wrote:

Lets be realistic..... probably 1/4 of the people that buy the Wii U are doing it ONLY for Nintendo licensed games.

I don't think you're being very realistic.

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Seriously though, if it weren't for Zelda games, I wouldn't have bought a Nintendo console past the N64.

Eh. This is not 2006. Even if Nintendo created the greatest console with the greatest launch games they would not be able to match the forever sold out Wii pace of 2006-2007. Seems like a pretty smart generational release. Like a lot of people, I don't have the disposable income to spend $400+ on a console system that I will play for a few hours a week. A higher amount of memory or better online or whatever other improvement people think they should make would not change my decision to buy it and would lower their margin.

Cool post, bro. I agree: It is clearly no longer the year 2006. And because of that, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect Nintendo to deliver an amazing online experience.

Steam, XBL, and PSN are mainstream and embraced by casual gamers. We're not asking Nintendo to cater to some niche group of people.

kinneywhat wrote:

Lets be realistic..... probably 1/4 of the people that buy the Wii U are doing it ONLY for Nintendo licensed games.

I don't think you're being very realistic.

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Seriously though, if it weren't for Zelda games, I wouldn't have bought a Nintendo console past the N64.

You would have missed out on some fun experiences, IMHO.

For the record, Epic has said that just over half of all Gears of War players never played online and were single player only. And on the 360, which is by far the most online focused of the consoles, only about half of them have an associated Xbox Live account and about half of those are Gold. I'm not excusing Nintendo's lousy approach to online play, but it's also not nearly as big a deal as it's made out to be.

For the record, Epic has said that just over half of all Gears of War players never played online and were single player only. And on the 360, which is by far the most online focused of the consoles, only about half of them have an associated Xbox Live account and about half of those are Gold. I'm not excusing Nintendo's lousy approach to online play, but it's also not nearly as big a deal as it's made out to be.

Wikipedia says there's 40 million XBL accounts, and assuming you're correct that 1/2 of those are gold accounts, I'd say that a robust online service akin to XBL or PSN is a very big deal for Nintendo.

Lets be realistic..... probably 1/4 of the people that buy the Wii U are doing it ONLY for Nintendo licensed games. If Zelda and Mario games didn't exist, I wouldn't have owned a Wii either. The one benefit of the Wii U, is that it's backwards compatible with games and peripherals, and I can transfer my classic games that I downloaded from the Nintendo store.

It doesn't have to be that way though. The Gamecube was a very respectable console and the only thing that killed it was the "kiddie/toy/lunchbox console lol" crowd keeping away from it. It was on-par with the Xbox graphically and received pretty much all of the cross-console third-party offerings to the point that it was my only console up until the point that Xenosaga Episode II was released. If the "core gamer" demographic hadn't focused on denigrating it for it's looks and (this is the most important part) Nintendo had worked harder to get third-party exclusives the GC could have made a solid showing through that entire generation.

Today third-party platform exclusives are almost non-existent unless the platform manufacturer decides to publish a third-party game themselves. Gears of War and the first Mass Effect are the only examples that I can think of that went that route. The costs of development have risen such that third-party developers/publishers feel that crossing platform lines is the only way to get sales of their product high enough to offset the cost. That's a good thing because it means that we can often pick a console for one or two important features and play most of the games that come out during the life of that system.

Depending on how many Xboxes and PS3s end up being duct-taped together (I don't expect to see either manufacturer make significant changes to their architecture after the costs they've incurred with this generation, cheaper to iterate on the existing than design a new architecture) the Wii U could hold it's own graphically against their successors. At that point the core question becomes "What features are most important to you?". Mutliplayer focused individuals will probably go with the next Xbox since Microsoft has that arena solved but the rest of the potential features could end up going almost any direction. Home Theater + gaming: what console has the best graphics/controls and makes it easiest to access content, stream or use media extenders with it?

What you said about 1/4 of people buying it for first-party games need only be true if it fails to deliver on other fronts so that it can't be those people's primary system.

Lets be realistic..... probably 1/4 of the people that buy the Wii U are doing it ONLY for Nintendo licensed games. If Zelda and Mario games didn't exist, I wouldn't have owned a Wii either. The one benefit of the Wii U, is that it's backwards compatible with games and peripherals, and I can transfer my classic games that I downloaded from the Nintendo store.

It doesn't have to be that way though. The Gamecube was a very respectable console and the only thing that killed it was the "kiddie/toy/lunchbox console lol" crowd keeping away from it. It was on-par with the Xbox graphically and received pretty much all of the cross-console third-party offerings to the point that it was my only console up until the point that Xenosaga Episode II was released. If the "core gamer" demographic hadn't focused on denigrating it for it's looks and (this is the most important part) Nintendo had worked harder to get third-party exclusives the GC could have made a solid showing through that entire generation.

Today third-party platform exclusives are almost non-existent unless the platform manufacturer decides to publish a third-party game themselves. Gears of War and the first Mass Effect are the only examples that I can think of that went that route. The costs of development have risen such that third-party developers/publishers feel that crossing platform lines is the only way to get sales of their product high enough to offset the cost. That's a good thing because it means that we can often pick a console for one or two important features and play most of the games that come out during the life of that system.

Depending on how many Xboxes and PS3s end up being duct-taped together (I don't expect to see either manufacturer make significant changes to their architecture after the costs they've incurred with this generation, cheaper to iterate on the existing than design a new architecture) the Wii U could hold it's own graphically against their successors. At that point the core question becomes "What features are most important to you?". Mutliplayer focused individuals will probably go with the next Xbox since Microsoft has that arena solved but the rest of the potential features could end up going almost any direction. Home Theater + gaming: what console has the best graphics/controls and makes it easiest to access content, stream or use media extenders with it?

What you said about 1/4 of people buying it for first-party games need only be true if it fails to deliver on other fronts so that it can't be those people's primary system.

I'm not saying that's the way it should be, but it's the way it is; if not higher. I'll put it this way..... I know roughly 10-12 people that have a Wii. Of those ten or so people/households, only three of them have games that are not Wii-exclusive. In two of those cases (one of them is me), it's ONE game that's not an exclusive, and it's Tiger Woods 2010. A couple of them are friends of my parents that only use it for the Wii Fit and Wii Sports. The others are people that bought it for the Nintendo Exclusives (Zelda, Donkey Kong, Mario games, Metroid, etc).

There may be many reasons behind that. It could be a credit to Nintendo that their first party games are so good that people buy consoles just for them. It could be due to the original Wii being graphically inferior and have poor online play, so 3rd party titles were purchased on other systems. It could be a lack of 3rd party support. Honestly, it's probably a combination of all of those. Look at sales numbers for large scale games released on mutiple consoles. Wii is always pretty far behind.

I'm not saying that the Wii U will make the same mistakes, but a LARGE portion of core gamers will buy the Wii U ONLY for Wii U exclusives. I'm not even saying that there will be anything wrong with the Wii U; I'm just saying that it's hardware and services are barely past where the PS3/Xbox360 were when they came out 7 years ago, but their amazing games still keep them in the race. I'm buying a Wii U. I have nothing against it. I'll never get anything other than exclusives for it though, and I believe that holds true for a lot of people.

I want to pickup a Wii U but it looks like I missed the preorder window. Hopefully it is not impossible to find in stock for years like the Wii was. My wife managed to pickup a Wii on my birthday at launch somehow. She still won't tell me how much she paid for it. Insists it "fell off the back of a truck."